Wheel balancing problem for GS?

[GS Chris]

Just had a quote for fitting Conti Road Attacks on loose wheel (£177 Bikers World, Pershore), but they said unable to balance GS wheels, without an adaptor, which they haven't got.

Anyone else encountered this?

Is it to do with the R19 front?

Chris

 

[Jon P]

It's the large diameter of the hole in the middle of the rear wheel.....tell them they should get an adaptor! Garages are meant to invest in their tools as part of doing business.

 

[Oz1200]

I had the same issue with a rear tyre (Tourance). The fitter brushed off balancing as not being necessary, with lining up the red dots on the tyre being sufficient. I wasn't really satisfied with this, and ordered the Marc Parnes wheel balancing device from the US. It only took a week to be delivered to Australia, and is a quality bit of kit, if not a little pricey given the number of times I’ll use it.

I was quite surprised how many weights I had to add to get the wheel balanced. It took 5 of the 9 gram weights. (As an aside, I wonder if it would be possible to rotate the tyre relative to the wheel to get it balanced without the use of weights – that is beyond my capability at the moment anyway). You know how the rear wheel will rotate when the bike is cold and idling on the centre stand? The rotation of the wheel used to be uneven – alternating faster and slower. I didn’t think much of it, until I noticed that the wheel rotates smoothly after balancing. I can’t really tell if the bike rides any smoother.

 

[GS Chris]

It's the large diameter of the hole in the middle of the rear wheel.....tell them they should get an adaptor! Garages are meant to invest in their tools as part of doing business.

They claim this adaptor costs £500.

 

[Womble]

They're probably looking to buy an adapter for one of the big automated balancers. It sounds like your local shop don't want to go to the hassle of actually learning how to balance, they just want a machine to tell them what to do.

My local firm use a stand that you could buy from various places for about £100, and none of the local bikers have a bad word to say about them.

 

[Dickieboy]

Would this be any good -



http://www.bestrestproducts.com/celestia/products/dynabeads/

 

[iftikartaxis]

Best thing to do is take your wheels to a agent who can do the job correctly
if they can't do a simple job like balance the wheels after fitting new tyres they shouldn't be fitting tyres
correctly balanced tyres will make the bike handle better

years go we used to balance the wheels whilst still on the vehicle it seemed space age at the time you could tell how much vibration the vehicle had coming through the steering and suspension usuing a strobe light

 

[Yoda]

Wheelhouse Tyres, Coleshill, near the NEC.

They've done 12GS fronts and rears for me.

Or.....perhaps give Robsom Racing, Shipston-on-Stour a bell.

 

[GS Chris]

Thanks for your input guys.

Had not heard of Dynabeads before. Any good?

Have ordered the tyres from Protyre, Gloucester. They put the rear wheel on their car balancer.

Don't wish to start a separate thread, but I meant to ask this in my original -

has anyone else using D607s found that both front and rear get 'castilated' (hope that's the correct spelling) ?

Chris

 

[mark71]

Doing it like the big boys do

Hi there getting wheels balanced is always a pain because the old art has been forgotten by so many so my word to you is learn the old way of doing it (which the GP teams still use) and do it yourself.

When I worked in the bike trade we only ever did the front wheels and always by hand however I am not sure if that is bacause the boss was too tight to buy a machine to do it.


I would only do the front and make sure that you line up the valve markers on the tyres with the valves on the rims as it makes life so much easier.

If you have any probs give me a shout.

Mark

 

[JayGee]

I've had this problem but the fitter didn't tell me untill i asked why the weights on the rear hadn't been changed. He also gave me a load of crap about the cost of adapters for the rear GS wheel so I won't be going back there. I took the rear to a car tyre fitter, he balanced it on the car wheel balancer, cost an extra fiver but at least I know it's OK now.

Never had any trouble with the front being balanced as it's a fairly conventional bike wheel.

Personally I am not sure it's worth balancing a rear wheel off the bike, by the time you get the effect of chain/shaft/bevel drive etc. the balance it probably miles out.

PS Had two sets of D607s, very nice tyre and I didn't notice any castellation (is that the same as cupping?). The Road Attacks are OK but not noticably better than the Road pilots in the wet, In the dry all the tyres I've had (D607, B/Ws, Road Pilot, Road attack) grip enough to get the GS pegs scrapping but D607s or Road Pilot are my preference in the wet.

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

I've always had the front balanced but never the back

I've never had any problems as a result.

Andres

 

[Tommo]

Have ordered the tyres from Protyre, Gloucester. They put the rear wheel on their car balancer.

Chris

I always use Protyre in Gloucester and they always balance the rear wheel on there car balancer,never had a problem.